It’s finally here, the day all the non-US dopers have been waiting for, the day of the 2008 presidential election.
Will it be the Democrat Barack Obama, first mixed race US president?
Or
Will it be John McCain, Repubican?
Post election results as they come in here:
First is Dixville Notch, New Hampshire: Obama 15 McCain 6
I’ll be watching Virginia and Indiana first as well as OH, PA, NC.
Dixville Notch.
Hart’s Location, N.H.:
Obama - 17
McCain - 10
Paul - 2
Has CNN called the race yet?
Will we get the east coast results first since their polls will close first? Can I assume all voting stations close at the same local time? How indicative is the Dixville Notch result?
Many of the east coast battle ground states close early and the results will be out as they are tabulated. We should know Indiana, Virginia, Ohio right off the bat. Ohio may take some time to count unless it is a landslide.
IIRC, the Dixville Notch result is quite accurate. It went to Bush in 04’.
W00t! 
Dixville Notch obviously doesn’t have many people and they all vote at midnight I’ve learned, so it’s pretty unusual is it? Or are there other areas similar? I was thinking polls would close at say 9pm and results would come in after midnight in general - obviously I’m wrong.
I’m guessing with the record turnouts at the polls this election will be called difinitively by 11pm eastern, maybe sooner.
For those who really rally want to overanalyze - no Dixville Notch doesn’t indicate much.
It’s gonna be a long day waiting for real results …
They have a tradition of voting at midnight on november 4, also they take advantage of a law(?) that allows closing the polls once every registered voter has cast his/her ballot, so they all gather at the polling place, vote at 12:00 and then the results are counted.
Nate Silver from 538says Dixville results are not predictive, he seems to know his stuff.
Virginia is, ah, going to be bad this year. I’m getting all kinds of weird problem reports down there.
The swing in Dixville Notch is 44% – from 73% for Bush in 2004 to 29% for McCain in 2008
With a swing like that, Obama could take Utah.
Just wanted to subscribe to the thread so I can check it later from my phone…and add a request. Could someone put whatever results in manually? My phone doesn’t do flash, and that’s what CNN is using for all their results.
Good luck everyone!
-XT
So how long until we get some results? Are the media going to report the results right away, or wait until the polls close on the west coast?
We should start getting some results around 7pm EST I should think. Aprox 5 hours if my time is correct.
-XT
I believe the first polls close on 6PM Eastern. Results will start coming in almost immediately thereafter, with the news outlets declaring a state one way or the other using a combination of official results, exit polls, and demographic modelling. In general, blowouts will be called as soon as the polls close, while very close records can last for hours, even days.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say Obama will win D.C., though McCain may well do better than Bush did.
Most of Indiana and Kentucky close at 6. If the vote is decisive enough these states could be called before 7. If Obama wins Indiana McCain goes on life support.
Virgina, Georgia and South Carolina close at 7 pm. If Georgia or SC goes to Obama it is over for McCain.
Most of Florida’s polls close at 7 along with most of New Hampshire’s. So they could be called before 8 as well.
Ohio weighs in at 7:30 and Pennsylvania at 8.
So by 8 we’ll know if this is going to be close or not.
ETA: This is all Eastern Time.
Obama doesn’t need Florida to win, though, so a close race there (which is very likely) doesn’t mean a close national election. I think it’d be a big surprise if Obama won Indiana or Georgia by enough that we knew within the first hour. Virginia should get called fast - but in all of these guesses, I think we’re overlooking the effects of huge turnout. If there are more ballots to count, even if it slants strongly for Obama, it may just take longer.